More than 50 Yiddish media worldwide + 10 theaters

First directory of Jewish media worldwide in High German and Yiddish published by IMH-Verlag

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In recent decades, scholars have almost exclusively described Yiddish as a dying language. But a recent study by IMH-Internationale Medienhilfe (International Media Aid) has shown that Yiddish is lively and the number of people who speak this German dialect is increasing rapidly.

IMH director Björn Akstinat explains: "We examined the Yiddish media scene and discovered that after years of decline, more and more newspapers and magazines have recently been founded. More than half of the more than 40 existing publications worldwide only appeared after the turn of the millennium, almost all of them in and around New York. This is a clear indication of a strong increase in the Yiddish-speaking population. The large number of children among the Orthodox Jews living there is now clearly noticeable. The devout Jews, who use Yiddish as their everyday and colloquial language, are among the fastest growing population groups in the USA — as are the Amish, who also speak a German dialect among themselves."

Many Orthodox families have up to 10 children. In the New York suburb of Kiryas Joel, which is almost 100% inhabited by Yiddish speakers and where there are already Yiddish street signs, the population is said to have doubled to around 40,000 residents between 2010 and 2023. According to U.S. authorities, the average age in Kiryas Joel is the lowest of any town in the United States. This makes the place probably the most children-rich. The children grow up primarily with Yiddish as their mother tongue. English is often a foreign language for them. According to estimates, there are now well over 500,000 Jews living in the U.S. who use Yiddish as a first or second language. German tourists are often not even aware that they can usually speak to Yiddish-speaking Jews in the United States in Standard German.

Investigating the Yiddish media scene worldwide was extremely time-consuming for the head of the investigation, Björn Akstinat. In particular, when searching for Yiddish newspapers and magazines in and around New York, he had to act like a detective in order to track down the necessary data in the closed world of orthodox Jews. He discovered new weekly newspapers, daily newsletters, children's magazines and free advertising papers that had a weekly length of over 200 pages.

In addition to the U.S., individual Yiddish publications are also published in the Netherlands, Poland, Russia and Sweden.

Particularly noteworthy for German speakers are the almost 10 Yiddish radio programs around the world. On the one hand, you can listen to them without knowing the Hebrew script, in which Yiddish is mostly written. On the other hand, when you listen to it you notice how much "Mameloschn" resembles High German and is understandable to German ears. All programs can be received not only regionally via FM or AM, but also worldwide via the internet. It's worth tuning in to the weekly Yiddish broadcasts from Jerusalem, Winnipeg or Boston, among other programs.

The results of the study were summarized in the new directory "Jewish media worldwide in High German and Yiddish" published by IMH-Verlag. This first international directory of German-Jewish newspapers, magazines, radio programs, TV shows and websites even contains a list of all Yiddish theaters worldwide at the end. More information here: https://www.imh-service.de/verlag/juedische-medien-weltweit-in-hochdeutsch-und-jiddisch-jewish-media-worldwide-in-high-german-and-yiddish

About IMH-Internationale Medienhilfe:

IMH-Internationale Medienhilfe (International Media Aid) is the network of High German and Yiddish-language media around the globe. The spectrum of members is diverse. It ranges from the U.S. magazine "Florida Sun" to "Dos jiddische Wort" in Poland and Radio Vatican to the "Nordlandführer" in Iceland.

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